Rome

Day 4

On our last day in Rome we headed to the Vatican, planning on touring the Vatican Museum. We knew the line would be long so we first walked through St. Peter's Square. Unfortunately, my camera decided that this would be the perfect time to die so I only got these pictures.

 This is the line to get into St. Peter's basilica, something that we missed out on.

So after we walked around the square we joined the longest line I have ever waited in. Then we stood. And waited. For 3 hours and 15 minutes.

Once we were finally inside the museum we only had a couple hours until the building closed so Laura and I rushed through many wonderful exhibits, straight to the Sistine Chapel.  Once inside we found ourselves in even bigger mobs than the ones populating the rest of the museum. Of course the ceiling was unbelievable, but I was a little let down! Because so many people ignore the no photography rule, the ceiling is very dimly lit to help protect it from the light of camera flashes. I could easily make out the beautiful paintings, but I couldn't see it as well as I would have liked. 

After about ten minutes, Laura and I headed out to see what else the museum had to offer. 

Fun fact: if you look at every item in the Vatican museum for 15 seconds, it will take you 3 months to see everything.

I realized that I had missed several very notable frescos done by Raphael that were along the path to the Sistine Chapel. This happened because throughout the museum there are signs directing you towards the Chapel and you can either take a long route or you can follow the shortcut signs.  Laura and I had taken most of the shortcuts to make sure we could see the ceiling which meant we had shortcutted right past the Raphael rooms, so we hurried back through a bunch of exhibits we had already hurried past once before. We practically ran past halls full of enormous painted maps, historical papal objects, egyptian artifacts, lots of art, and who knows what else for a second time but man, it was worth it.  Raphael's School of Athens is awesome. Of course it looks just like the pictures of it, but like with all art, seeing the painting in person is a completely different experience than peering at a photograph of the work in some textbook.

After going back for Raphael, we found ourselves in the Sistine Chapel again. This time we found seats along the side and were able to relax and take in the ceiling for another 15 minutes or so before we were herded out by the guards trying to close up.

Overall, our last day in Rome was spent primarily waiting in a line, occasionally being spattered with rain, but I saw some of my favorite pieces and that made it all worth it.